Lateral adjuster for surveying instruments.



PATENTED DEC. 25, 1906.

w. A. BERGER. LATERAL ADJUSTERFOR SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 27.1906.

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PATENTED DEC. 25, 1906.

W. A. BERGER. LATERAL ADJUSTER FOR SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS.

' APPLICATION FILED IUNEZ'I,1906.

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lllll lllll-lllli WILLIAM A. BERGER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LATERAL ADJUSTER FOR SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 25, 1906.

Application filed June 27,1906. Serial No. 323,621.

To all whmn it ntay concern.-

Be it known that I, l/VILLIAM A. BERGER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Lateral Adjusters for Surveying Instruments, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

The object of my invention is to improve upon and extend the usefulness of the lateral adjuster of United States Patent No. 696,401, granted April 1, 1 902, my improvements ser ving to render the adjuster interchangeable for use with a mining-trivet or with a tripod, as desired, and in the preferred embodiment of the invention the adjuster itself can be used without a separate support in extremely low and difficult positions in a mine or the like.

In carrying out my invention I provide means whereby the adjuster may be interposed in the manner explained in the aforesaid patent between an instrument-head and the usual instrument-support (tripod, trivet, or the like) and retained in operative position for roughly orienting the instrument, whereupon the guide-plate or lower supporting portion of the adjuster is clamped fast to the instrument-support, and then the more delicate and accurate adjustment of the instrument is effected by means of the adjuster. Also the adjuster is so constructed that it can be used with a three-levelingscrew instrument or with a four-levelingscrew instrument, as desired, and may, moreover, be used with any size of instrument irrespective of the radial distance of the levelingscrews thereof.

Further constructional details and advantages will be pointed out in the course of the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows in side elevation, parts being broken away for clearness of illustration, my invention applied to a tripod and the instrument-head of a leveling instrument. Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof, parts being broken away. F ig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the adjuster. Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view 011 the line 4 4, Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 is a top plan of the shifting-plate and clamping means of the usual support with which my improvements are intended to be used.

Surveying instrumentssuch as miningtransits, leveling instruments, &c.are commonly used with two kinds of well-known supportsviz., tripods, which are high, so that the user stands upright, and trivets, which are low, for use in confined and restricted positions, such as stoping-work in mines, tunnel and subway Work in cities, &c.

My invention aims to provide a lateral adjuster having the general construction and mode of operation shown in the abovementioned patent, but adapted to be used interchangeably with either of the above-mentioned supports.

In Figs. 1 and 2 I have shown a tripod having legs 1 of the usual kind pivoted at 2 to a top portion or plate 3, having a plane top surface 4, on which is mounted to slide freely a shifting plate or ring 5, adapted to be clamped in position by a clamping-ring 6, threaded at 7 into the hollow top plate 3 of the tripod. All the foregoing parts are common to both tripods and trivets. The plate 3 is herein shown as having three arms or branches and the shifting-plate similarly shaped and provided with foot-rests 8 for normally receiving the lower ends of the leveling-screws 9 of the instrument-head 10.

It will be understood that any usual surveying instrument, such as commonly employed in mining-work, may be used, and that for convenience in the drawings I have omitted the upper portion of the instrument, head, which is secured onto the upright at 1 1. Ordinarily the instrument-head 10 rests directly on the tripod-support, being secured thereto by a hollow shifting-post 12, Whose upper threaded end 13 then engages the lower threaded end 14 of the central post of the instrument-head, said shiftingpost pulling down yieldingly upon the instrument-head by means of a spring 15 engaging a plate or flattened nut 16 at its upper end and adjusted by a thumb-screw 17, all ,as commonly employed in surveying instruments.

My invention resides in the combination, with the aforesaid parts, of a special lateral adjuster which is interposed between the tripod or other support and the instrumenthead, the latter for this purpose being unscrewed from the supporting-post 12, raised up, the adjuster placed on the tripod, as

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shown in Fig. 1, the instrument-head then placed on the adjuster and clamped in position by means of the post 12 and a coupling 18, provided with a lower externally-threaded end 19 and an upper internally-threaded end 20 and milled head 21.

I will now describe the adjuster itself.

Referring more-particularly to Figs. 2, 3, and 4, which show the adjuster in top plan, bottom plan, and cross-section, respectively, I, provide a guide plate or support 22 and a slide-plate 23, herein shown as placed on top of the guideplate, said plates at their opposite longitudinal sides having cooperating ways 2 for maintaining accurate alinement and being retained in accurate adjustment by screws 25, as shown in the aformentioned patent. On its top side the slide-plate is provided with comparatively strong branching arms 26, preferably three in number and arranged to diverge symmetrically equidistant from each other on the plate for maintaining proper balance and equipoise, one arm being shown as extending centrally lengthwise of the plate and the other two arms extending diagonally forward toward the opposite sides of the plate, as best shown in Figs. 2 and 3. These arms are centrally provided with foot-rests in the form of V- shaped radial alining grooves 27 for receiving the pointed lower ends of the leveling-screws. These grooves extend radially toward the center of the instrument for a considerable distance for the purpose of receiving and retaining firmly three-screw instrument-heads of different sizes. For retaining instrumentheads having four leveling-screws I provide a central threaded shoulder 28, the same as shown in the aforesaid patent. The arms 26 are provided with a peripheral wall 29 for aiding the operator in placing the instrument in approximate position as he is getting the individual leveling-screws in the groove 27 one by one. The guide-plate 22 is provided on its under side with an interchanger, shown as consisting of short lateral legs 30, terminating in pointed ends 31, said legs de pending from said guide-plate in branching position to engage the foot-rests 8 of the shifting plate or ring 5. The lateral adjuster is apertured at 32 to receive the coupling device 18, and the latter is hollow, as shown in Fig. 1, for accommodating the plumb-bob chain or line 33. The slide-plate and guide-plate are shifted relatively to each other by means of a thumb-screw 34, having a milled head 35, as shown in the patent first mentioned.

In use, the instrument-head 10 is first de tached from its tripod or other support and lifted off. The adjuster is then placed on the tripod or the trivet, the short legs 30 being carefully put in position on the shiftingplate 5, so that the pointed ends 31 rest firmly and accurately in the foot-rests 8 of said shifting plate. The instrument-head 10 is then similarly placed in the radial retaining-grooves 27 of therlateral adjuster. Thereupon the clamping-post 12 and coupling 18 are connected with the threaded end 14 of the instrument-head, thereby firmly retaining together the assembled three partsviz. base support, lateral adjuster, andinstrument-head. The operator then shifts or orients the instrument-head and lateral adjuster roughly in onedire'ction or another, so as to get the instrument into'approximately correct position, simply by shifting the entire upper portion by means oftheshiftingring 5. Having roughly oriented the instrument in this manner, he clamps the shiftingring and supported parts in immovable position by means of the clamping-ring 6. Thereupon he'adjusts'with the 'utmost accuracy the instrument proper by means of'shifting the slide-p1ate of the lateral adjuster on the guide-plate by the slow-motion screw34. I have omitted from this description a statement of the operation'and advantages indetail of the lateral adjuster per se, as the same are fully set forth in theaforesaid patent,- my invention not residing in the adjuster broadly, but i the improvements therein, whereby it is adapted to more general use. If the position where the instrument is to be used is such that a tripod cannot be used and it is desired to use the instrument on a trivet, it is simply removed and placed in the same manner upon a usual trivet, or such a .trivet, for instance, as that shown and described in application Serial No. 253,032, or, on the other hand, if the instrument is to be used only for a moment or in an especially narrow and confined space the instrumenthead is simply placed directly on thelateral adjuster and the latter is then rested directly upon a beam or rock, the tunnel-bottom, or the like, its branching legs 30 serving to maintain it temporarily in proper unchanging position.

From the foregoing description it' will be understood that'my invention a'dapts'the before-mentioned patented adjuster to trivet use as well as to tripod use, so that it can be interposed at will in most of the usual varieties of surveying instruments, whetherused above ground or under ground or in confined places or not. Also my invention enables said adjuster to be used with the usual shifting-ring to orient 'theinstruinentroughly before it is clamped in position. Likewise it permits said patented adjuster to be used not only with a fourlevelingscrew instrument, but with various sizes of three'leveling-screw instruments. The legs 3O adapt theadjuster to be interchanged from onekind of support to another, and'hence I have referred to them as an interchanger, by which-I mean to include any means forenabling the lateral adjuster to be interchanged'readily from one form of instrument-support to another.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A lateral adjuster for surveying instruments, comprising a slide-plate and a guideplate relatively movable longitudinally, the slide-plate having means for detachably supporting an instrument, and the guide-plate being provided with an interchanger for adapting the adjuster to rest in stable posi tion on a mining-trivet or on a tripod as desired.

2. A lateral adjuster for surveying instru ments, comprising a slide-plate and a guideplate relatively movable longitudinally, the slide-plate having means for detachably supporting an instrument, and a plurality of short divergent legs depending from said guide-plate in position to engage properly the supporting-surface of a mining-trivet and a tripod as desired.

3. The combination with an instrument having a flat top surface, a carrying-plate having foot-rests freely shiftable on said surface, and clamping means for said plate, of a lateral adjuster having a guide-plate pro vided with short depending legs whose lower ends fit into said foot-rests, a slide-plate in guided relation to said guide-plate, means on said slide-plate for detachably supporting an instrument-head, and coupling means for retaining said instrument-support, adjuster, and instrument-head in superposed relation.

4.. A lateral adjuster for surveying instruments, comprising a slide-plate and a guideplate relatively movable longitudinally, the slide-plate having means for detachably supporting an instrument, and the guide-plate having three short divergent legs, equidistant from the center of the plate and from each other and arranged symmetrically with relation to the length of the adjuster.

5. A lateral adjuster for surveying instruments, comprising a slide-plate and a guideplate relatively movable longtiudinally, divergent retainers in the slide-plate for receiving the leveling-screws of an instrument-head,

. varying sizes of instruments, and supporting means on said guide-plate for cooperating with an mstrument-support 1n sustammg the apparatus.

8. A lateral adjuster for surveying instruments, comprising a guide-plate provided with means for supporting the same upon a usual tripod, a slide-plate mounted thereon. said two plates being mutually provided with cooperating ways for maintaining accurate direction of movement, the top of the slideplate having guiding means for receiving in direct contact therewith the leveling-screws of an instrumentdiead, and a thumb-screw connecting said two plates for moving the slide-plate on the guide-plate.

9. The combination with an instrumentsupport having a flat top surface, a carryingplate having foot-rests freely shiftable on said surface, clamping means for said carryingplate, an instrument-head, and a central yielding clamp, of an interposed lateral adjuster having legs engaging said foot-rests and having means for supporting the instrumenthead, and a coupling for detachably connecting said central yielding clamp and said instrument-head.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WVILLIAH A. BERGER.

Witnesses:

GEO. H. MAXWELL, WM. J. PIKE. 

